I doubt it, while the decision is wrong and threatening it is also totally opposed to recent US Supreme Court precedent in several substantial rulings of the past few years (most notably, Heller). But how long will the majority that has generally interpreted the Second Amendment so generously last? I report, you discuss. Or not:

On Monday, the Court of Appeals for the Second U.S. Circuit issued a long awaited decision on the constitutionality of the most drastic gun control law in U.S. history, the New York SAFE Act of 2013. The Second Circuit ruled that nearly all of the law does not violate the Second Amendment.

The SAFE (“Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement”) Act was presented to the New York State Senate and passed into law in 15 minutes. No debate was allowed, and senators did not have time to read the bill before voting it into law. [It is the most disastrously repressive gun legislation passed in this country since 1968, at least. I firmly believe the USSC wants to hear this case, and wants to rule on this act. I am quite confident they will find it unconstitutional, but who knows which way Anthony Kennedy’s magic 8 ball will read that day?]

The SAFE Act is a complete ban on the sale or transfer of all military-style semi-automatic rifles manufactured within the past several decades. It is a total ban on the AR-15, AK-47, M-14/M-1a, HK G3, Steyr AUG, and many other civilian copies of military firearms. Prior to the passage of the law, Gov. Cuomo publicly stated that he was considering “confiscation” of existing rifles, but the final version of the law allowed existing owners to keep their rifles as long as they registered them with the State. Upon the death of the owner, the rifle will be confiscated; it cannot be transferred to an heir within New York State.

The SAFE Act also enacted a complete ban on the possession of all firearm magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds. The law contains no “grandfather” provision for previously legal items.

Beyond that, the SAFE Act banned all private transfers of firearms, except among spouses, parents, and children; it created an ammunition purchase background check and ammunition purchase registry; it banned the private sale of ammunition except from a licensed dealer; and it created a secret reporting requirement under which “mental health professionals” must report anyone suspected of being a “danger” to the State Police for mandatory gun confiscation.

Now that the Second Circuit has upheld the law, residents within the court’s jurisdiction have no recourse except to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court – where there will be a guaranteed four votes against the Second Amendment. As I wrote last year, Gov. Cuomo and former Mayor Bloomberg, the backers of the SAFE Act, were betting that the law will be upheld by the Supreme Court, thus paving the way for a national version of the law (which has already been introduced in the Senate by Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.). Indeed, Cuomo immediately called for a national SAFE Act as soon as the Second Circuit issued its ruling Monday.

The Second Circuit’s decision comes only one week after both President Obama and Hillary Clinton publicly praised the Australian and British mass gun confiscations of the 1990s.

Which is an interesting corollary. We know Obama used heavy pressure and threats to induce the Supreme Court (re: John Roberts) to find the unconstitutional Obamacare constitutional in 2013. There were threats again this year in a similar case. And then there was the very heavy pressure applied to the Supremes in the Obergefell decision this year imposing sodomite marriage on the states. Did the demonrat party apparatus inveigh heavily on the 2nd circuit to support this unconstitutional assault on the rights of Americans? Will they do so again if it goes to the Supremes?

Well, even if the Supreme Court either dodges or caves, the SAFE act has been largely a dead letter, at least in terms of the mandatory submission to the government of so-called large capacity magazines for their destruction and the registration of “assault weapons” (for later confiscation). Apparently, virtually no one in the affected states has complied:

Since New York’s SAFE Act gun control law went into effect in January 2013, a total of 23,847 people have applied to register their newly defined assault-style weapons with the State Police.

Those individuals have registered a total of 44,485 weapons.

The statistics, hidden from the public for more than a year by state officials, were given to Rochester-area lawyer Paloma Capanna on Monday in response to a lawsuit she filed on behalf of radio host Bill Robinson.

Folks, this is stunning, buy any measure.

As Frank Miniter noted last year just days before the registration deadline, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) conservatively estimated the number of firearms that qualify as “assault weapons” under New York’s law were “at least” one million firearms.

We now know that less than 4.5% of the “assault weapons” in New York were registered with the state as required by the draconian 2013 law, despite threats and warnings from hysterical New York Democrats and their allies in the media.

This is an even greater refusal rate than was experienced in next door Connecticut, where anti-gun laws rammed through a similar law in the wake of Sandy Hook saw at least 85% of the Constitution State’s gun owners defiantly refuse to register their firearms, some going so far as to dare Governor Dannel Malloy and the Connecticut State Police to attempt confiscation. [Which won’t happen, not yet anyway. Not even in our draconian, illiberal day is there sufficient resolve on the part of our increasingly repressive government to try to lock up hundreds of thousands of law-abiding gun owners. Perhaps some day, but not yet]

Just don’t comply. No one can force you to do anything. They can drag you to jail. They can ransack your house. They can scream bloody murder and make all kinds of threats, but they can’t make you do anything against your will or conscience. So if your state is one that declares all manner of firearms illegal, it’s a real shame about that boating accident where they all fell down to the bottom of the lake, idn’t it?

And it’s not just guns. This kind of passive resistance to illegitimately exercised governmental authority may have to become a regular recourse for a lot of us. It’s a perfectly acceptable means of passive resistance.

Anyone know where the bishops of New York and Connecticut stood on these gun grabs? Are they lockstep in favor of the USCCB’s very anti-gun ownership outlook?

Two news pieces came out yesterday regarding the Chinese government’s apparent plan to end their draconian one child policy. Directed largely at urban dwellers (rural folks could frequently get “dispensations” for two and sometimes three children), this policy saw much horrific behavior on the part of the Chinese government and immense suffering inflicted on people. It also led to a severe imbalance in China’s population – since boys are so preferred in Chinese society, girls were routinely aborted or killed at birth so the family could have a male heir. I’m a male chauvinist pig, but that’s a severely messed up mentality.

The core problem with this policy – aside from the brutality of it all, which has resulted in the deaths of likely hundreds of millions over the past 40 years – is that when you limit a population to one child per couple, you cause a demographic implosion. No matter how far back you care to go, so long as couples are limited to one child, any number of grand parents, great-grand parents, great-great grand parents, etc., will have only ONE grand child, great-grand child, great great, etc., ad infinitum. It is a great way to completely wipe out a population over the course of 10 or 15 generations.

The other thing this kind of evil policy does is to instill in souls a truly corrosive set of beliefs. Once you get people accustomed to having one or no children, even when you want them to start having more, they’ve already adopted the “no-reproduce” mentality and even huge incentives to reproduce wind up having no effect. We see that in Europe, Russia, Japan, and other nations today. So now that the Chinese government is set on “generously” allowing two kids per urban family, this article prognosticates that its probable very few will take up the offer:

China’s population of working-age adults started shrinking in 2012, and by 2050 the country will be home to fewer than 1.6 workers for every retiree, according to a 2013 report from the Paulson Institute. That’s comparable to aging, slow-growth countries like Japan and Singapore. In response, the regime is hoping to spark a baby boom.

Unfortunately, by this point, even a two-child policy may be too little, too late. [And it leaves this satanically repressive “family planning” apparatus in place] Most Chinese outside the big cities can already have two, and sometimes more, children. Meanwhile, a recent, limited opening in several cities failed to turn up many urban couples interested in having a second child.

The reasons aren’t unique to China: As societies become wealthier and concentrate in cities, couples choose to have fewer kids. A peer-reviewed study from 2012 found that between 2000 and 2005, urbanization accounted for a net decline in fertility in all but three of China’s provinces. The government could try enforcing maternity-leave policies better and providing more generous childcare subsidies. But such policies haven’t really succeeded in Singapore or Japan, and there’s little reason to think that they’d work any better in China.

The author then goes on to recommend that China try to “import” labor – basically, to steal the most vital resource of other countries, it’s people, just as we see many US business leaders doing with Hispanic labor today. A relatively high wage country like China (wages have exploded there in the past several years) can certainly attract workers from lower wage countries like Burma, Cambodia, Laos, etc., but what impact does that labor drain tend to have on those abandoned countries? Evidence from the Western hemisphere suggests it leaves those former countries mired in poverty, and severely inhibits their own ability to develop organic economic growth. But such is the zero sum game of the corporate capitalist.

For some examples of the kinds of horrors the one child policy has engendered, here is another article sent along by reader MFG:

His wife was seven months pregnant with their second child when the group of people barged into his home and took her away. He followed them to the local hospital, where — against medical advice and despite his pleadings — they jammed a needle into her belly.

“They grabbed my wife’s body like they were grabbing a pig, four or five people holding her hands and legs and head, and injected a shot into her belly,” the man said, asking not to be named for fear of retribution. “Neither my wife nor I signed any consent form.”

Ten hours later, she gave birth to a boy, wriggling and faintly crying. But the doctors in southern Hunan province would not even let her hold the dying infant, the husband said, putting the baby in a plastic bag and instructing him to pay a cleaner a small sum to bury it on a nearby hill.

The incident happened not during the horrors of some Mao Zedong-inspired mania in the 1950s or 1960s, but in 2011, in the Internet age and when China was walking proudly on the global stage as a major power…….

……In 2012 alone, official statistics show 6.7 million women in China were forced to have abortions under the one-child policy. Rates in previous decades often topped 10 million a year. As a result, experts say, suicide rates among women in China are significantly higher than among men in contrast to global norms.

This is EXACTLY what results from the apotheosis of leftist sexular paganism, communism. Leftism is a materialist, utilitarian ideology. Taken to its logical conclusion – communism – creates governments that treat humans like cattle and has caused mass slaughter in every single country that has been forced to endure them.

And as we see around the world today, in spite of the mountains of evidence indicating the unavoidably evil nature of leftist systems of government, it seems more and more that the self-anointed elites of our society are determined to push a reluctant world in that direction, even creating a one world superstate where there will be no alternative to the nightmare of amoral materialist leftism. Things like China’s one child policy aren’t accidental by-products of leftism/communism – it’s what they do. They are the essence of leftism. We see so many leftists in our own country calling for unlimited abortion on demand and without apology, they advocate for the slaughter of the elderly and sick because they are no longer productive, they even argue in favor of “post-birth abortion” – child murder – as an inalienable parental right. Leftism is uniquely sick because it is a uniquely diabolical and deliberately anti-Christian mindset. It’s evil consequences are an inseparable part of its evil beliefs.

But you knew that already. Well, maybe someone will stumble on this blog who doesn’t.

I’ve done two posts on the F-14 Tomcat in the past year (roughly) and I generally like to mix it up a bit more, but I stumbled on a video presentation that is simply too awesome not to include. It features former Grumman VP Mike Ciminera discussing the whole of the F-14’s development, from early technological antecedents like the XF10F Jaguar to the failed F-111B program and then onto the VFX program that spawned the F-14. Something to keep in mind – while Grumman certainly had been examining potential F-111B replacements from mid-1967 on (and perhaps a bit before that), the VFX program didn’t get started until early 1968 and Grumman was selected by the end of the year. Two years later, in December 1970, the Tomcat made its first flight, and entered squadron service a mere two years after that. Two more years, and she was in combat service flying off the deck of USS Enterprise off the coast of Vietnam. For a totally new aircraft type of the 4th generation, 6 years from conception to combat is very, very impressive.

As is this video. Ciminera discusses the VFX competitors briefly, then really delves into the F-14 design features that made it such a very unique and capable aircraft, especially given its size. I had forgotten a bit that the F-14 could do many of the same high-alpha maneuvers that have so wowed airshow crowds when the Su-35 has done them. Not quite to the same degree, but close, and 30 years before.

Some really neat info below. Tomcat enthusiasts will love the video, its an hour well spent. One incredible thing I learned – the Tomcat, due to its unique aerodynamic control surface configuration, could pull 7.5 Gs at Mach 2. There are very, very few aircraft that have ever been able to do that.

Switching subjects to one of MY all time favorite aircraft (I seem to have a soft spot for losers and also rans – explains a lot!), several excellent videos on the Northrop YF-23. Competitor to the Lockheed-General Dynamics F-22, the YF-23 was essentially an all-Northrop product, even though they were ostensibly “teamed” with McDonnell Douglas in the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) competition (in contrast, General Dynamics made several key contributions to the F-22 design, and those contributions probably resulted in the F-22 getting the win, or at least being competitive. Boeing was also on the Lockheed-General Dynamics team, but it’s unclear what they contributed).

The first video is probably the best single video providing an overview of the YF-23 design and development. She was a fine looking aircraft, and would have looked even better in production. There were some problems not mentioned in the video, however. While the YF-23 was generally viewed as being more stealthy than the YF-22, and Northrop claims their RCS was lower in most aspects, there was one glaring counter to that claim – the engine fan blades were radar-visible from certain angles, contra the YF-22, where the engines were buried so deeply they could never be seen by radar. This is most significant, because not only are those whirling chunks of metal huge radar reflectors, they can even be used to positively ID an aircraft (radar signal processing having become so advanced it is possible to discriminate engine fan blade returns, and by noting characteristics of their geometry, RPM, etc, discern engine and thus, aircraft type – this is called “non-cooperative target recognition”).

Where you can see the light coming through the engine nacelle, that’s where the engine would be visible to radar. You can see how a ground radar could see up in there at certain angles. On the F-22, no such view exists.

Also, the YF-23 used Space Shuttle like tiles – but even more complex and advanced – to line the engine troughs at the back end of the aircraft. This provided good rear-aspect stealth (something the F-22 does not do as well), but given that these tiles are air-cooled with millions of tiny perforations and that each one has to be laboriously hand-placed, USAF probably was right to be concerned over maintainability.

Another factor against the YF-23 was that it would “only” be able to carry 7 AAMs internally vice the F-22’s 8. In fact, even that 7 was a stretch, in “normal” configuration the number was 5. That was seen as a potentially serious handicap.

In other areas, the YF-23 was much faster and much more maneuverable at supersonic speeds. We don’t know what the limits of that performance were, but the YF-23 with the GE YF-120 engines was reputed to be much faster, longer ranged, and capable of sustained maneuvering (i.e., fighting) at supersonic speeds. Most aircraft can only maneuver gently at such high speeds, so that was a significant advantage. The YF-22 was better at the slow speed flight and severe angles of attack, thanks to its thrust vectoring engine nozzles.

There’s a lot more, but I’m running out of time. To the videos. First, the very good overview video:

This second video features discussions by YF-23 test pilots Paul Metz and Jim Sandberg. This is also a truly excellent video, giving all kinds of details regarding why the Advanced Tactical Fighter was developed, and then about the aircraft itself:

Two more videos on the YF-23, both walk arounds by the same two test pilots Metz and Sandberg.

Thanks to Western Museum of Flight and Peninsula Seniors Videos for uploading these.

I don’t know whether to be proud or miffed. It seems Texas cities make up almost half of the top locations of GDP growth in the year 2014. I know I live in the greatest state in the union, I am a native Texan through and through, but at the same time every time I drive to work I get reminders of how many people are flooding here from abroad. I can’t drive to work without seeing Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, and, Heaven forfend, California. I have read that since 2005 500,00 out of staters have moved to the DFW area. Now surely I hope some of those folks are good, moral Christians who will become good Texans, but I know many of them are not. They simply cannot be. And so I fear this state will get overrun – Californicated, if you will – by people fleeing the very states their leftist beliefs and voting patterns have ruined.

It happened to Colorado. It happened to Nevada. It could sure as heck happen here. And we know the left is actually working to try to make this happen. If Texas becomes a purple or blue state, we’re finished.

1. Table of the Day (above). Based on data released a few weeks ago by the BEA, the table above shows the 20 US metro areas with the fastest GDP growth in 2014. Interestingly, 5 of the top 10 fastest growing metro areas, and 9 of the top 20, were in just one state — Texas. Also interesting, though not unexpected, is the fact that energy is largely responsible for the strong economic growth in the top 5 fastest growing metro areas in 2014, and in all of the top 13 fastest growing metros except maybe Dallas and San Jose. Carpe oleum.

So before any of you wild eyed leftists get ideas of coming to Texas, dreaming of enjoying riches while spreading the gospel of socialist sexular pagan misery, let me tell you a few things:

We’re mired in a horrible depression here in Texas. Yeah, 2014 might have been good, but with the Saudis flooding the market, the shale boom is over and folks are getting fired left and right. Midland, Odessa, Tyler, Victoria, Beaumont -ghost towns, all of them. The few remaining people are flat broke, destitute, lying about on dusty streets covered with scorpion stings and rattlesnake bites. Oh yeah, they’re everywhere. I don’t care if you buy a $5 million condo on the 40th floor in downtown Dallas, it will be infested – with roaches the size of rats, rats the size of cats, and cats the size of really, really big cats. It’s just how it is here. Vermin everywhere. It’s the worst possible place to live you can imagine.

Why am I proud of the place, then? Well, it takes a pretty tough hombre to hang here in this state, where it’s constantly at least 90 degrees (on Christmas) and it never rains except when it rains 24 inches in a day, right, Corsicana? So you could call it a kind of perverse pride held by those who can tough it out. But Californians? They die by the truckload within days of coming here. We just dump ’em in the old exhausted oil wells. All those Yankees, too. Dead. Either the heat gets them, or the rattlers, or the giant spiders, or one of us crazy gun nut Texans. And sometimes at night, when the cops helpfully look the other way, we run you down with our giant lifted trucks. Just for sport. Have you seen what a set of 37″ tires can do to a pedicured metrosexual in skinny jeans? Yeah……it’s not pretty. The only thing left is a few of his oh-so-trendy beard whiskers ground into the pavement.

SO DON’T MOVE TO TEXAS!!! YOU’LL HATE IT! STAY IN CALIFORNIA AND NEW JERSEY AND ALL THOSE OTHER WONDERFUL PLACES!!! THEY’RE SO MUCH BETTER!! WE’VE RUN OUT OF ROOM AND HOUSE PRICES ARE SKYROCKETING!!

At the same link, I found this gem:

Pretty good.

Oh do I have an awesome Flightline Friday lined up for tomorrow! I hope I have time to do it!

OK, the version I’m quoting was actually updated about 1905, but the bulk of the book was written in the 1880s. I simply don’t have time to post any long excerpts right now – though I sure have some good material I’d like to upload – so I’m just going to put out some random quotes from The Catechism Explained by Spirago-Clarke as I wind up reading the book. It’s as good a Catechism as I’ve read in many regards, though I’d say in certain areas This Is the Faith by Canon Ripley and My Catholic Faith are better.

Anyway, I’m running out of time (work again), so here goes:

Confession is profitable to the individual insomuch as he derives form it self-knowledge, delicacy of conscience, interior peace, strength of character, and moral purity.

By comparing all that he has done or left undone with the low of God’s commandments, the penitent learns to know his own heart. His conscience also speaks more clearly. By frequent confession the Law of God is more deeply impressed on the heart of man; when tempted to sin, the commandment he is about to break presents itself to his mind. The mere thought of confession also acts as a deterrent from sin; some persons abstain from sin because they could not bear to tell it to the priest.[I know that works with me! That’s a powerful argument in favor of having a regular confessor] Experience proves how great a relief confession is to the mind of one who has committed a grievous sin. The impulse to confess one’s misdeeds is inherent in human nature; confession answers to this feeling, and the assurance of pardon affords the greatest consolation. Confession also increases strength of character, for by it we learn to overcome ourselves. Moreover the Holy Ghost enlightens our understanding and fortifies our will, and the more steadfastly the will is inclined to what is good, the more strength of character we shall possess. Confession, being it itself an act of humility, cannot fail to make a man humble, and humility is the foundation of all moral perfection. Proud people have the greatest aversion to confession. It is a means of freeing ourselves from the fetters of the devil, for by telling the truth when it would be so easy to deceive, and the temptation to conceal is often experienced, we throw off the yoke of the father of lies, and turn to Him Who is eternal Truth. And the less power the devil has over a man, the more easily he will draw nigh to God. The first step in amendment of life is to go to confession. “Before applying thyself to good deeds,” says St. Augustine, “confess thy misdeeds.”

If anyone should relapse into mortal sin, let him forthwith repent and go to Confession; for the longer penance is delayed, the more difficult, the more uncertain conversion will be.[And the longer we remain with a number of venial sins on our conscience, and allow those sins to gnaw at our character, the greater the chance of falling into mortal sin]

It is the opinion of the Fathers that as almighty God has appointed beforehand the number of talents to be confided to each individual, so He has fixed the number of sins which shall be forgiven to each; when this number is complete, there is no more pardon to be found. St. Augustine says that the long-suffering God bears with the sinner up to a certain point; after that he cannot obtain forgiveness.[Both St. Thomas and St. Alphonsus, perhaps the two greatest moral Doctors beside Augustine, say exactly the same]

“The Christian,” says St. Augustine, “will be questioned not about the beginning, but the end of his life.”

The more good work we have done, the less we must fear damnation.

Unremitting prayer is an excellent means of persevering in justice.

An indulgence is by no means a remission of mortal sin and the eternal punishment due to it; these must already be remitted before an indulgence can be gained. It is not absolution from sin, but the remission , partial or plenary, of satisfaction due to sin. It is not a means of evading the Sacrament of Penance and rendering sin easy; on the contrary, it obliges us to a real conversion of life.

Without suffering no man can be saved; even the Immaculate Mother of God, who was free from all sin, had no small measure of suffering as her lot on earth.

Confession should precede Extreme Unction, because the recipient of the Sacrament should be in the state of grace. Extreme Unction is a remedy; and as medicine is for the living, not the dead, so this Sacrament is of no utility to those who are spiritually dead.[Which causes me to shake my head at how the “Sacrament of Anointing” is received en masse by every single person at these regular communal services so many parishes have these days. How many of those receiving this Sacrament are in reality spiritually dead? Does anyone call for Confession before the reception of this Sacrament, which is handed out in a manner strikingly similar to the abuse of the Blessed Sacrament, with long lines and indifferent reception?]

All men cannot be priests (Eph iv:11, I Cor xii:29). Yet we frequently find all the faithful spoken of as priests (I Pet ii:9), inasmuch as they ought to accomplish to the glory of God good works which are in a certain measure a spiritual oblation; they are priests insofar as they immolate themselves in the service of God as spiritual victims. In the same sense the faithful in general are spoken of as kings, because they ought to rule over their fleshly lusts. [We hear progressive priests and others in the Church call for the diminution of the sanctity of the priesthood and the devolving of sacred roles – like distributing the Blessed Sacrament – to lay people under this mistaken notion of the “common priesthood of the people of God.” This explanation explodes that myth.]

Our Lord say: “Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He send laborers forth into His harvest” (Matt ix:38). Remember that a priest is the salvation or the perdition of his flock. In the Old Testament we read that when other scourges were of no avail to turn the people, hardened to sin, from their evil ways, God sent upon them the heaviest scourge of all, wicked and corrupt priests. [We must be so very, very wicked. Lord, have mercy and convert us to virtue and faithfulness!] Let us therefore make it our continual prayer, that we may have good priests. The Ember days are appointed specifically for this purpose.[Do you observe the fasts and penance of the Ember days?] Special prayer should be offered to the Holy Ghost, for unless a priest is enlightened by the Holy Ghost we may apply to him the words: “If the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit.”

——–End Quote——–

There is a lot of other gold I hope to get to in the coming days. That’s all I have time for tonight.

As part of a post regarding Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s heterodoxy, Vox Cantoris describes how “private” or hidden sin influences the way self-described Catholics, including many bishops and priests, think, paving the way for their embrace of manifest evil. I’ve brought up this topic many times in the past but never so clearly or so well. It really ties together how the personal sins of millions have led to the cultural calamity we see around us, and even more, the collapse of the Church in opposing immorality. While I think it very edifying, I would like to stress that it does, of its nature, deal with mature themes and thus should not be read by children or those with more sensitive consciences:

A few weeks ago, just before the start of the Synod, I was chatting with a priest friend. The subject of the Synod came up and the issue of homosexuality and state sanctioned, so-called marriage, between members of the same-sex and the overwhelming support for it by Catholics. I said that it is because these Catholics who support the abomination of sodomite and lesbian “marriages” are chronic masturbators. They view pornography on a regular basis alone or with their spouses or concubines and keepers. [Full stop. This is the key. Yes, the rest figures in, but not yet in a majority, I don’t think. But a majority of Americans/westerners now abuse themselves regularly. They couple this abuse with porn use. Over time, “regular” porn doesn’t do it and they have to descend into greater and greater kinks to get their thrill. That almost invariably includes sodomy. So now you have tens of millions of people conditioned to accept sodomy as “normal,” because no one wants to think themselves abnormal. And so it goes. M-F sodomy is the “gateway drug” to all kinds of other and worse things] They engage in adultery themselves or have an “open marriage” and engage in “threesomes.” They have experimented in the past with orgasms with someone of the same sex. They engage in sodomy in its actual and broadest sense as man and woman and as husband and wife to their own physical and spiritual detriment. [Also rampant, and a big factor] They contracept, as a couple or individual. They may have had or aided the murder of their baby in the womb [we know about half of all Americans adults have played a direct role in procuring an abortion] or they may be a closet sodomite or lesbian themselves.

They do this and they call themselves “Catholic.” They may go to Mass and if they do, they surely receive the Holy Eucharist. What they do not do is go to Confession. In addition to not accepting the above as sins because they do not see them as sins, the one sin they do accept and would never want to commit is that of hypocrisy. To them, being hypocrite would be the greater sin.

After all, “Who am I to judge,” they would ask themselves.

How does the above relate to Cardinal Wuerl? VC includes a comment from a priest that makes the connection:

Cardinal Wuerl is the foremost spokesman for giving Communion to abortionists in public office.

All his current arguments for giving Communion to adulterers and sodomites are recycled from his many past statements in defense of giving Communion to abortionists in public office.

He pretends that Denial of Communion is a “penalty” that exists ONLY because of canon law–i.e., Canon 915. It is not, of course. It is mandated by the moral law, because: a) a minister of Communion who gives the sacrament to a person obstinately persisting in manifest grave sin is collaborating directly in the sin of sacrilege; b) the faithful are led to believe that the sin of the communicant is not a sin. By pretending that Denial of Communion is a “penalty,” Wuerl evades the REAL issue: Giving Communion to person obstinately persisting in manifest grave sin is always grave matter; i.e., a mortal sin.

By pretending that Denial of Communion is a “penalty,” he pretends that he is exercising legitimate “discretion” or “prudence” or “pastoral judgment” when he gives Communion to abortionists, adulterers, lesbians, etc. Bishops DO have discretion when it comes to the application of penalties, but Denial of Communion is not a penalty. [It’s the very worst of sacrileges]

Cardinal Wuerl’s long-standing PRACTICE–giving Communion to pro-abortion politicians, self-proclaimed lesbians (Cf. the case of Fr. Marcel Guarnizo), and gay couples (at regularly-scheduled “gay Masses in Pittsburgh and Washington), etc., is the reason that he is COMPELLED to insist now that Communion be given to people living publicly in adulterous unions.

I think that’s dead on. The argumentation so many prelates have used to support their previous heterodox positions now veritably forces them to endorse even more extreme heresies, like pseudo-sodo-marriage.

That’s the way it is with heresy. It never stops with one. Heresy tends to lead to apostasy, just as Luther’s trumped up angst over sold indulgences led him out of the Church. How many men now drawing very comfortable livings from the Church are practical apostates? Probably best we don’t know.

There is more at Vox Cantoris, including evidence of Wuerl’s hypocrisy, but I’ve taken enough. Do go read it, though.

Why do I get a weird mental connection of Fr. James Martin, SJ everytime I see Cardinal Wuerl?

Something that has to be born in mind when reading Sacred Scripture, is that it is filled with types. These types are indicators of future events. Thus, the Exodus from Egypt is a type for our earthly sojourn. Numerous prophecies referred to the coming Messiah. Other events, like the sacking of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, were also seen in type before the event, and those events also serve as a type for the future persecution of the Church.

These types extend into the New Testament, as well. One of those is the sublime John xv:18-25, from the Gospel reading for the Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude. In it, our Blessed Lord excoriates the Jews (in particular, the Pharisees) for their unfaithfulness and willful blindness in their rejection of Him. But this is also a type for our own day, when so many religious leaders in the Church refuse to accept Christ as truly Son of God, as the Source of irreformable Truth, and as the only Messiah the world will ever see, or need. Instead, they cast around for worldly messiahs, for earthly utopias.

A truly stinging rebuke. Our Lord obviously knew this would be a problem to afflict the human element in the Church throughout her existence:

18 If the world hate you, know ye that it hath hated Me first. [The world, under the spirit of its master, has always, and will always, until the last day, hate Jesus Christ]

19 If you had been of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

20 Remember my word that I said to you: *The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, **they will also persecute you: if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also.

21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake: because they know not Him that sent me. [Inside the Church and out, many are deaf to Christ’s words. They love the world more than Him.]

22 If I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not have sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin. [And this applies even more so to prelates in our own time. How many miracles do these men have to turn a blind eye to – and we know they do, men like Kasper have written volumes on how much they reject ALL the miracles in the history of the Church – to sustain their unbelief? And not just biblical ones: Lourdes, Fatima, Akita, Saint Margaret Mary Alocoque, Saint Catherine Laboure, St. Dominic……they have to exclude SO many testimonies to our Lord’s divinity it is mind-blowing. But men have been doing exactly that for 2000 years]

23 He that hateth Me, hateth My Father also. [That’s the crux of it all]

24 If I had not done among them the works that no other man hath done, they would not have sin: but now they have both seen, and hated both Me and my Father.

25 But that the word may be fulfilled which is written in their law: *They have hated Me without cause.”

“They have hated me without cause.” Mark that with “Woe to them that cause scandal to one of these little ones that believeth in me; it would be better for him that a great millstone were hanged around his neck, and he were cast into the sea” (Mk ix:42).

That is how seriously Our Lord takes scandal, and the propagation of error within His Holy Church. It would be better that these men had never existed, says Our Lord. Thus, they need many prayers. It is very difficult to have charity for those who cause so much destruction, who seem so willfully perverse in their pride to upend God’s Church and send souls flying into hell in great torrents. But it is our solemn duty as Catholics. I am trying very hard to have more charity for these men.

“Vengeance is mine, says the Lord” (Dt xxxii:35) and His judgment is perfect. That is a terrifying thought to contemplate.

I’ve been waiting for this! JMJHFProductions – a small Catholic apostolate most deserving of support, in my estimation (you can donate to them here) – accompanied the Remnant Chartres pilgrimage this year. They filmed a great deal of footage in HD. Just a couple days ago, they uploaded their 1 hour summary video of the 3 day pilgrimage. There is so much to find uplifting and edifying in this footage! So many people, but especially young, taking part in a time-honored devotion and witness to our Faith! So many assisting devoutly at the Traditional Latin Mass! Such inspiring art and architecture!

The Chartres pilgrimage is an overwhelmingly traditional phenomenon. What a blessing to see so many souls willing to undertake this arduous hike in all kinds of weather.

I really do appreciate these videos. I have been on edge since late last week for a number of reasons – the Synod, we’ve all been sick, work suddenly decided to go crazy – and I’ve needed something to settle me down. This ought to fit the bill very nicely. It also fills me with desire to assist at a Chartres pilgrimage someday before I die, even though I am not a big traveler.

I pray you find this as enjoyable as I did. You might find yourself recognizing a few faces, as I did.

Now a few more brief videos also from the pilgrimage:

And finally a repost of the incredible light show from the Chartres Cathedral at the conclusion of the pilgrimage:

If you haven’t subscribed to the JMJHFProductions Youtube page, you should! I’m certain they’ll be uploading more videos from the Chartres pilgrimage and the rest of the Remnant’s summer Euro-tour in the coming weeks. The folks who run JMJHF are just regular Catholics like you and I. They operate off donations from other generous Catholics. If you find their work edifying, I might again impugn on your charity by supporting them. Every little bit helps.

Just how did this come about? Surely by many factors – not the least of which included having the overwhelming and heavy-handed support of the Bishop of Rome – but another factor may have been the little-noticed collapse of Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Muller.

LifeSiteNews tienen mas. Mind, the article is long, I reduce it down to what I consider is the nub (note first paragraph was written while Synod was still in progress, thus the use of future tense):

A decisive role could now be played by the German-Language group [at the Synod]. The participants of the Synod are consulting together in language groups – and the German group contains the highest custodian of the Doctrine of the Faith, Müller; and the spearhead of the reformists, the former Curial Cardinal Walter Kasper. Both are renowned theologians worldwide. “If the group around these two [cardinals] comes to an agreement about the reform proposals, it would be close to squaring the circle, because everything would then have the [approving] stamp of the Prefect of Doctrine himself,” according to an Insider. [Wow, a capital “I” Insider! Maybe it was ol’ Frankie himself. But I think that argument makes a good deal of sense]

The claim, namely that, finally, it all depends upon an attained agreement between the spearhead of the reform – Cardinal Walter Kasper – and the spearhead of the resistance – Cardinal Müller, was indeed true. Some concerned Catholics have been praying for Cardinal Müller all along, since he had to face in his own language-group five strong German “Kasperites,” namely: Cardinal Kasper, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop Heiner Koch and Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, all of whom had shown, during their own preparations for the Synod – in one way or another – some notable sympathy not only for homosexual couples, but also for the admittance of “remarried” couples to Holy Communion. [Ever been in an argument against several people at once. It ain’t easy, especially as the arguments stretch over weeks. It takes great cooperation with Grace to be sustained in such an environment. Perhaps Cardinal Muller was lacking in some way. Maybe he lacks a proper reverence for the Mediatrix of All Grace, the Blessed Mother]

It was in the last of the three reports of the language-groups, as Edward Pentin reports, that the German-language group floated the idea of a resort to the internal forum “which critics say is a slightly modified version of the ‘Cardinal Kasper thesis’ that would admit remarried divorcees to Communion after a period of penance […].”

Significantly, when this German-language group report was presented on October 21, it was Cardinal Marx himself who, speaking at a Synod press conference, insisted upon the fact that this report was written with the unanimous support of all the members of the group. More than once, he said: “Every text of the German-speaking group, every relatio, is unanimous. No vote against it. That is very important, I think.”[Dangit. It sure sounds like Muller did cave.] He seemingly repeated this fact so that everybody in the room would realize that this meant that Cardinal Müller also supported the report. And Marx explicitly said that the idea of the “internal forum” was intended to be a means to help some “remarried” divorcees “to come to a full reconciliation with the Church,” which would include the access to the Sacraments.Cardinal Marx explicitly mentions at the press conference that there was a kind of agreement between Cardinals Kasper and Müller over the weekend, after they had each studied the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas as to how, with prudence, to “look at the different situations.” [There is no possible way to twist Aquinas to support Communion for manifest adulterers. Even if you translate it into Cyrillic and read it upside down and backwards, NO WAY. This is simply a very pathetic form of cover.]

As the Austrian website, kath.net, reports, it was due to the persuasive influence of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn that a compromise was found. It said: “Without the diplomatic and linguistic capabilities of the Viennese Archbishop an agreement between the positions of Cardinals Walter Kasper and Gerhard Ludwig Müller would probably not have taken place.” Kath.net received this clarifying insight from one participant of the German-language group – “who prefers not to be mentioned by name” – and who also privately commented that, at times, the discussions in the German group were “controversial, but to the point.”

Another German-speaking participant, the Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, describes in an interview with the Swiss Radio station SRF on October 25 the implied meaning of the paragraphs 85-86 of the final report as a path of differentiation. Kath.ch, the official website of the Swiss bishops, sums up Koch’s nuanced statement:

With reference to the care for remarried divorcees, Koch calls the result of the Synod a differentiation: “The situations of the remarried divorcees are very different,” and these different situations are to be “taken into account in the realm of the pastoral care.” The text does not say that Communion is to be made possible for these faithful. “But it is also not excluded,” says Koch in the interview.

And there you have it, the most likely vehicle by which the most atrocious portions of the Synod’s final document were arrived at, by compromise total collapse on the part of the man charged, by God and Holy Mother Church, with keeping the deposit of Faith whole and sound, Cardinal Gerhard Muller. A man many expressed grave reservations over when first appointed by Pope Benedict in 2012, both for his toxic statements regarding the Blessed Mother, and for his affinity for liberation theology.

So perhaps it’s not very surprising that he would be one to cave. It has long been related by many Saints that in time so tribulation we must run to the foot of the Cross and there remain with our Blessed Mother. She is the only one who can sustain us through times like these. The only Apostle who stood by Our Blessed Lord during His Crucifixion did so because he stood there with the Mother of God. A cardinal who made perverse conjectures regarding the nature of the Blessed Mother in her earthly life is not well equipped to have the kind of recourse to Our Lady so needed when satan in all his might rails against us.

Our Lady, pray for us! Defend us in this hour of darkness! Through your intercession, keep us always faithful, by always remaining near to you. And through your mighty intercession, restore our Holy Mother Church, O Hammer of Heretics!